Yellow tang

[tcarola154]

Ok so im kinda new to saltwater fish- Ive had my percula and damsel for about 2 months now... and well you know how things go, theres two little one inch fish in a 45 gallon tank so I wanted to get something big and bright to make it more interesting. So I bought a yellow tang and had it in a 10 gallon QT for about 2 weeks. I introduced him today and for most of the day he was his normal solid yellow color but I noticed a few hours ago he started turning a pale yellow on his underbody. Is this normal for adjusting to a new tank (i dont remember it happening when i first brought him home) or should I be concerned? The guy at the local pet store said it could just be from some stress and advised me to turn off the light and leave him alone for a while. Is this the right course of action?

 

[bamaboy2go]

My yellow tang does this each night when the lights go off. when they come back on he goes back to the dark yellow again.

 

[demodiki]

A 45 gallon tank is woefully undersized for a yellow tang. A two week QT period for a tang...or any fish for that matter...is far too short. You might as well have added him to the main tank.

With the chastising aside I would keep an eye on him and make sure he is eating. Tangs need a lot of veggies in their diet. You could try soaking it's food in garlic to stimulate appetite and boost immunity.

Hope you don't have an ich breakout.

 

[tcarola154]

he has eaten a lot of the macro algae i've been feeding him, i went and purchased some dry seaweed and put that in there too, but he only kinda nibbled at it. But he is definately eating plenty (and fully digesting it all too... btw why is it that fish have to try to eat their own poo?)

oh and what exactly do you mean by soaking his food in garlic?

 

[tcarola154]

oh and the 45 gallon tank is only for about 6 months... The whole reason I have the tank is to get used to caring for saltwater fish, becausee I'm moving into a new house and my dad and I are going to install a built-in 250 or so gallon tank.

 

[tcarola154]

ok just figured id update... i woke up today and the tang is its normal beautiful yellow color and he has become quite active in the tank already. Soooooo... seems like i was just a little paranoid. Thanks for the help anyway

(and dont worry demodiki, I'll make sure I quarantine for longer from now on i just figured I would have too much to worry about when it comes to stressing him in the new tank because the two fish hes with are 1/3 his size and not agressive at all)

 

[melosu58]

They will grow pale at end of day and when lights go out but the will be just as vibrant when the lights come back on.